Trump goes after Indiana GOP boss after party rejects his map
President Donald Trump is pushing back after Indiana Republicans joined Democrats to sink a redistricting plan he had aggressively championed. The vote against the proposal represents one of the sharpest intraparty rebukes of Trump’s influence within a deep-red state to date.
A rare break with Trump in a ruby-red state
The Indiana Senate voted 31–19 to reject a congressional map that would have added two more GOP-leaning House seats, a centerpiece of Trump’s months-long push to reshape Republican-controlled states ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The outcome was decisive: 21 Republicans joined Democrats to kill the bill.
For weeks, Trump and his allies mounted an unusually aggressive lobbying drive, dispatching Vice President JD Vance to Indianapolis twice, summoning lawmakers to the White House, threatening MAGA-backed primary challengers and blasting reluctant senators as “RINOs.”
But the resistance inside the caucus held.
Trump downplays involvement, while vowing to topple GOP leaders
Speaking in the Oval Office after the defeat Thursday, Trump downplayed his involvement, despite previously pitching senators directly and posting repeatedly urging them to fall in line.
Still, he made clear he intends to back challengers against lawmakers who crossed him, especially Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, who resisted the pressure campaign.
“But there’s a man named Bray as a I guess head of the Senate,” Trump said. “Was that Bray? Is that the name? Bray? And, I mean he’ll… I’m sure that whenever his primary is, it’s I think in two years, but I’m sure he’ll go down. He’ll go down. I’ll, I’ll certainly support anybody that wants to go against him.”
Trump allies, including Turning Point USA and the Club for Growth, had accused Bray of privately undermining the redistricting push, an allegation Bray denied. In the end, Republicans sided with Bray’s assessment and voted the plan down.
This story is featured in today’s Unbiased Updates. Watch the full episode here.
Why this map mattered
The proposal would have radically reshaped Indiana’s political landscape by splitting Indianapolis into four separate districts, each paired with conservative rural areas. That design would have positioned Republicans to possibly control all nine of the state’s House seats.
It was one of several maps Trump has been pressing GOP-led states to pass. Texas, Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina have advanced Trump-aligned redistricting plans in recent months.
Indiana is now the first major state to reject one.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
